


Another Chance: Waking

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Another Chance (Pern/DCU fusion) [2]
Category: DCU - Comicverse, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Multi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-06
Updated: 2012-11-06
Packaged: 2017-11-18 02:22:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/555815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The survivors move toward a new life on a new world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Chance: Waking

*** 14 years later ***

Along with most of the other engineers, Slade had been awakened with a year or so still to go on the journey, to start ironing things out about how they were going to house so many people. He didn't envy the agronomists working on the plans for feeding that many, either. Missing his boys was a near physical ache at times, and he spent a good half of his off time down with them -- until he got fed up, had a long talk with Joel Liliencamp, and convinced him he could use their quick hands and agile minds in sorting out the mess he'd found in one of the minor cargo bays... the entire ship had heard about the mess, after all, at volume.

The boys received dispensation to be awake, and learned zero-gee damned fast to help re-sort the bay easier, under Slade's watchful supervision. Roy took to it every bit as quickly as Dick did, though the brunette moved in zero-gee as though he had been born to it -- and the two of them did make re-sorting the entire chaotic mess a dozen times easier on Joel's slowly easing temper.

With them awake, Slade was able to settle to the true business of his work... and the progress the two boys had made in being social over the two years they had lived with him slowly became obvious. Mostly in that half of the Yoko's crew wound up noticing the two's more playful sides -- on their off hours, because when they were working they were professionals -- with smiles of their own. For many of them, it was painfully obvious that they boys were bringing them the first smiles in several years.

Slade kept a watchful eye out for any potential trouble, while trying hard not to be too protective. He was still very much geared toward defensive thinking, even after the long journey's sleep. The boys were just as bad, sharp ears and wary eyes alert for anything out of the ordinary... but the rest of the trip was an easy one. Which was almost enough to make them all nervous.

Between Joel's need for assistance on the ground and the need for every engineer they could put down, all three of them were on one of the second sets of shuttles down -- given that they were completely unwilling to be separated. With as much time awake as they had already had, they were more than in shape to do some of the hardest of the construction labor, as well.

***

The small woman looked around almost silently at the warehouse that hid the tools she desperately needed. Why they had gotten mixed up, she wasn't sure, but now she had to find them, so she could start testing the viability of native plants.

A young redhead trotted up to her, his head tilted to the side, "Need help, miss?"

Dinah blinked at him, sliding back down to an easier position from her almost unconscious defensive posture at his approach. "Some of my tools wound up not with the agronomy supplies. The reqs log says they're in there." She offered him the printout she had gotten.

"Thought I'd seen you up in the conference rooms," the redhead nodded, reading the printout quickly. "Oh, yeah. Okay, I know where those are... but that crate's a heavy mother. Joel'd pitch a fit if he found out about this one," he muttered. "All the crit supplies were supposed to go straight over... Ah. These came out of _Bahrain_..." he was walking as he talked, heading unerringly back through the warehouse.

"Thank you," she said, soft-spoken in tone, but the way she carried herself... he'd seen it too often in the other survivors.

"This's my job, 'til things calm down and I can get over there," the redhead shrugged a shoulder as he snagged a rolling ladder as he went. "But you're welcome." He dragged the ladder along and around a corner, then scrambled up to the top of it, reaching for her crate and hefting it down. He hissed softly at the weight as he balanced it until he was back on the ground, knife flicking out of a back pocket, only to be offered to her. "You want to check this before we haul it across Landing, make sure nothing's missing?"

"Yes." She took the knife and opened the box, inspecting the comments, and clicking her teeth when one diagnostic unit was obviously broken. "I know I packed it better than this," she whispered, her voice distressed. She studied the piece of equipment, deciding what she'd need to salvage it.

//Right. A word with Bahrain's cargo master, Joel...// "I think we've got components that ought t'match those circuits," Roy offered, settled on his haunches on the other side of the box, looking at it speculatively. "Might take me a bit of looking, but if you'll leave that one here, I'll find you the pieces for it. Would you rather put it back together yourself, or let Joel or Robbie or I do it?"

"I'd..." Her immediate need to protect her equipment died at something in the boy's face, "be glad to let you, if you have time?"

"I've got the time. You need this equipment worse than most need stuff out of here, if I heard you right. If you'll take that one over to the main building, I'll pack the rest of this over to meet you at the agro sheds...?" he let his voice raise in a question as he watched her, knowing survivor protectiveness of their things extremely well -- he had it himself, in spades.

She considered it a moment, and then nodded. "I appreciate it..." She let her voice curve up, asking his name.

"Roy Harper, Miss...?" She would be completely beautiful, if she didn't carry so much pain back behind her eyes where she thought it didn't show, he thought.

"Dinah... Lance." The hesitation, a different shape to her lips before she said the last name told him 'widow'.

"Alright, Miss Lance. I'll see you over there in just a bit, then." As soon as she turned the corner, he double-checked the pieces quickly, memorized the code on the box again, and packed everything back in carefully, winced at the weight a moment as he lifted it again, and started at the best pace he could make after her.

She had hesitated at the door, and seen the look of concentration that came with packing a high weight -- she'd been worried about that, given everything she'd packed into that crate. "Maybe if I take one side?" she offered softly.

He looked at her over it for a second, then nodded, shifting it in his arms to let her take one of the sides. "You been dirt-side long?"

"Came down with most of the agro people. I'm concentrating on native flora, though, so I tend to be on the short end for supplies." She sighed. "They honestly don't understand that it is best to have a fallback that doesn't require tinkering."

"Always is. But they'd rather have what they know," Roy echoed her sigh. "First, Beta, Aurigae... all of 'em tried to transplant everything from Earth they could, right?"

"Yes... with many failures, and some awful costs."

"Mm-hm. Heard about some of those, tryin' to study for th' damn agro exams... too much tech speak for me, though. Can't wait til everyone's down and things _cool_ down enough to let me start gettin' out there and figurin' out what's worth anything..."

"I'm going to be taking off soon, myself. There's only so many samples in the immediate area, and I'm working them as fast as I can catalogue them."

Roy gave her another long, steady look, nodding once. "Wish I'd met you on the Yoko, might not've gotten so tangled up in this Stores mess... but Lili needs th' help, too." She hardly looked like she could manage tangling with one of the big snakes they had already had trouble with in the sheds, she was so tiny...

"You're doing very important work," she told him. "But if you're serious about agro... I could use some help when I head out. Easier to pack samples with a second pair of hands."

From a lot of people, that comment would have sounded condescending enough to send him into a fury... but there was nothing like that in her voice, or her face when he looked at her. "Just let me know when you're heading out," Roy nodded.

"I'll do that, Roy." She offered him... not a smile, but a softer face at least.

They finally reached the agronomy sheds and he settled the box on a table where she pointed, smiled a goodbye at her, and started back for Stores at a dead run, the day only warm to his desert-bred sensibilities. He had been half-frozen in those damn warrens way too long to complain about the heat. "JOEL!" he yelled as he came back through the doors, snatching up the broken unit as he went.

"Harper?" Joel roared back, lost somewhere in the middle of the critical supplies.

Roy tracked his voice, still moving at a silent run, and swung around the last corner with his free hand. "How'd Bahrain manage to lose at least a crate of the agro supplies over in warehouse 3, and on top of it handle it rough enough to break a diag unit?"

Joel spit out a litany of unique curses at the cargo chief on the Bahrain, and looked at the piece in Roy's hands. "Should be salvageable, right?" He knew the boys were both geniuses at saving equipment with a very low cost in parts.

"Yeah, Robbie and I'll get it back together. The botanist that came looking for it is working on what on this planet we can eat or turn into somethin' useful -- which was a mite hard t'do without her gear -- I'll be up in the comp gear, hunting the parts for this thing, anyone needs a hand."

"Get to it, and make her a priority. Glad to hear one fool agro is intent on makin' their own way rather than feeding off our hoarded supplies," Joel grumped.

"Yessir, Joel," Roy nodded, and took off to work on it, wishing Robbie was there to talk it over with. But Robbie'd gotten dragged into helping ground-check the gig, the shuttles, and the sleds that were already taking stakeholders out searching, even before everyone was down.

***

Roy was annoyed at how long it'd taken him to get the thing _hopefully_ back in working order as he jogged back across Landing to the agro sheds late the next afternoon.

He found the usual bustle and toil of the agronomists, setting up seed beds and tending the early shoots of the quick sprouts. On back past the hydroponics he found a much more relaxed atmosphere, with the woman from earlier working directly in the dirt of the planet, testing it for content. She looked up immediately, and nodded. 

"Hello, Roy."

"Brought you your diag unit back. The components should all be matched, but if you could check it real quick...?"

She accepted it back from him, running it through the diagnostics. "It does seem to work right. Good thing, too -- it's my main unit for finding toxins."

Roy nodded quickly. "Sorry it took me so long, I don't quite have all Lili's memory tricks for finding stuff down yet. Speaking of, he says you have priority -- anything you need, to help take the strain off his Stores, you're to get." //Well, close enough.//

She cocked her head to the side, suspicion around her eyes at first, until the words fully processed against Joel's background. "Tell him thank you for me, Mister Harper."

"Can do, Miss Lance," he nodded. "Anything else lost in all our boxes, while I'm here to ask?"

"I don't think so." He could see just how precisely she had her space organized, everything at hand in a memorized location, the handiwork of a person accustomed to losing lights where she worked. "Next rest day, would you like to go with me into the brush?" she offered, her voice almost hesitant.

"Glad to," he nodded. "Be good to see ground that hasn't been tromped all over, after four years mostly in damn cold caves and a year awake on the Yoko..."

She shuddered slightly at the thought of caves. From her reaction to them, the way she had things laid out, and her survivor's instincts, Roy could guess she was either a warren dweller, or off a satellite, and that she likely had been caught or trapped in whichever it had been.

"I'll hopefully have plenty already catalogued by then, enough to feed us both maybe."

"Doesn' take much t'feed me, I promise," he said with a grin, trying to distract her from whatever she was remembering. "That's... two days from now, right?"

"Yes." She nodded, and did smile at him. "See you then, Mister Harper."

"Roy's okay," he said with a shrug, smiling back at her -- glad to see her smile at all.

"Roy," she repeated. "Then you have to call me Dinah."

"Alright, Dinah. See you in a couple." He turned to leave, then, letting her get back to her work -- and him back to his. He would talk going on out over with Slade and Dick that night, figure out what he just had to take, and what weight he could afford to leave behind. For damn sure, the bow and quiver he had kept when they sold off nearly everything else was going.

*** 

"Hey," Roy said to both of them after they finished eating. "Got an offer to go further out, exploring, from one of the agro techs... Help me figure out what I've got to take?"

"Day trip or overnight?" Slade's protectiveness over his boys did not extend to being nosy about where they got themselves off to... much. He did like to have a general idea of a check-in time, though.

"We've only got the one day off, so day-trip. Finally found the one of them that's more interested in figuring out what we can use that already lives here than making earth stock live here," he said, sounding entirely pleased. 

"Yeah?" Dick asked, leaning over.

"Yeah. Remember that diag unit I had to drag you in to help fix? Her."

Slade nodded approvingly. "Not a lot of priority on that, so glad to know someone's doing it."

"You and me both," Roy nodded. "She's not real impressed with the rest of them," he added with another, more wicked, smile. "So. 'S only a day trip, but we'll be headed more down into the tropics, so..." 

The three of them put their heads together, hammering out a list -- most of which they had around the house, paranoia dying hard, after all.

Slade handed over a blade he'd brought with them, taking up space with a mind to thick foliage... on the off-chance. "Called a machete. Tends to cut through things with a chopping action, easier to wield than an axe, less destructive than a flamethrower..."

Roy nodded and tested the swing of it well away from them, while Dick dug up the first aid kit and double checked all of it, throwing other suggestions out as he did. The start of an argument over waterproofed gear was cut short by an annoyed growl from Slade (and Roy putting the gear into the pack) and they went on discussing it until he had a compact pack put together for the trip two days later.

***

He was up and over there by first light that day, leaning back against the shed's wall with his eyes shut, bow on the ground under his hand.

She arrived just a few minutes after, noting his ready look, and nodding approvingly. She had a small pack, and a very compact scanner securely attached to one arm. He saw the pack she wore could expand, no doubt for whatever they brought back. His, too, had room, sectioned off from his gear. He slid back up to his feet, quiver and bow going back over his shoulder. "Morning. We forgot to set a time, but I figured you meant early -- and I told my partner and our... guardian we were only going to be out the day, so now I'm hoping I read you right..."

"You did." She gave him a light smile. "Farmer... I keep the sun hours. Regardless of what schedule the sun is on."

Roy nodded at that. "I saw you'd req'ed a sled's use for the day, too. Easier that way," he said approvingly as he headed for the sleds, already knowing she would be right with him.

She kept pace, her gait that of a person careful in artificial gravity. "Want to get out, beyond the explored area. Give ourselves at least eight hours exploration and still come back in with daylight."

"Yup," Roy agreed, adding the information to what he already knew about her. "M'partner's the one that really enjoys piloting, but I have a decent hand with it if you don't want to."

"I'm fair at it." She then gave him a half-smile. "But I'd rather have my eyes on the foliage."

"Deal," he agreed, and slid into the pilot's seat of the sled once they reached it, bow and quiver on the floorboards next to him, revealing the machete strapped to it as he flight-checked the sled. "Which way did you want to head?"

"Due south, please. I want to see how far the tropical tendency goes before temperate zones mingle."

"Yes ma'am," he flashed a smile over his shoulder before taking the sled up and out, heading straight south with the sun at his left.

She watched, a quiet woman, but she slowly pointed out the changes in foliage, the differences against most of the flora from what they'd brought in, and finally told him where to set down, seeing the marked change in shrubbery types.

Roy listened intently, replying when something really caught his attention, then found a spot to sit the sled down and parked it, settling his gear back into place once he was out of the sled, whispering a soft prayer for luck to the holy people he still half-blamed for the loss of his people, but would call on nonetheless. "Your specialty, lead the way, Dinah.."

"Thank you, but something tells me you know wildlands better than I know plants," she told him, taking point easily. She had a way of twisting and slipping between obstacles that let her move, pulling sample leaves and roots and blooms and anything else she could, making notes on each specimen she found, sealing and labeling them as they went.

"Maybe," he said with a flash of a smile at her. //Where did a spacer girl learn how to do that?// he wondered. He got her to split the burden between the two of them, keeping his eyes out sharp for snakes, bugs, and the big predator 'wherries' they'd seen already. He slid forward at some points, calling to her to stop as he chopped them a path through particularly thick patches, then would fall back again.

It was near midday when she called halt, and pulled out carefully made... sandwiches, except the contents were rolled up in a flatbread he'd never seen. It had a totally different look to it than piita, and it's color was nothing like a corn flatbread.

"The seaweed they keep finding processes well into a dough mixture," she explained at his curious glance.

"Huh. That's a help, given how long it'll be before we've got wheat or corn growing... even barley. How much grinding did you need to do t'the seaweed?"

"Takes a bit. And I'm still playing with it. If I can isolate a variety of yeast native to the world... I figure the brewers will help me there."

"People get thirsty," Roy agreed with a snort, "and beer brews fast." He took a bite, smiling a little. "It's not frybread, but it's good."

"I'm bothered by the lack of true grasses. The grassoids we've found... I'm not sure if their seedheads will produce a grain. I'd sure like to find a swamp, to see if maybe there would have a true grain, like rice."

"I'll be no use in a swamp," Roy admitted, "other'n as a pair of hands and feet. Not my usual at all. The overhead maps ought to have 'em plotted out, though..." he reached back, swinging the pack around in front of him to dig out a sheet of folded plas.

"Next trip, maybe. And just a quick survey... a swamp's ten times as likely to have toxicity in the creatures there." She looked over the map with him, though.

He nodded, agreeing with her on the toxic-ness from stories he'd heard, and plotted out where to swing for that next trip as they finished off the sandwiches, and Roy tugged a bottle of water from his pack to wash it down with.

"Here..." She offered him a sip of her own. "I'm so used to recycled water that I've always added citrus to mine, and I found something here that's a little like a lemon, a bit like an orange..."

"...oh. I _like_ that... What's your lemon/orange thing look like?"

She flipped to an entry in the journal she was taking notes in (honest paper and ink, he noticed) and showed him. "I'm wondering just how to make good paper when the wood around here is so young... We need to be careful not to disturb the re-growth the planet is experiencing."

"Hm... they make paper from stuff that isn't wood, don't they?" Where he'd heard that, he had no idea, but it was stuck in his head.

"Yes, but I haven't had a chance to really experiment with fibrous plants yet." She smiled at him. "Reeds in the swamps would be nice. Something like flax would also be good. So much to try and find."

"Nother reason to hit the swampland next time," Roy filed that away, too. "How much further did you want to go?"

"Hmm, got a good enough sense of direction for us to head back, on a slight curve, not trace our own trail?" she asked, eyes lighting up with all the thoughts of future expeditions.

"Robbie an' Slade would both beat me stupid if I couldn' manage somethin' that simple," he laughed, shaking his head as he folded the map back up and tucked it away again.

"Your partner and your guardian?" Dinah filed that away for the future, having decided this working partnership could be very beneficial to her.

"Yeah, in that order," he agreed with her. "Towards the river, or away from it?"

"Toward, on the off chance the sats and probes missed marshy soil." She started to pack up the remnants of the meal, before her senses tingled at a barely perceived motion, and a knife flicked into her hand by instinct.

Roy's hand flashed for bow and arrow just as fast, that same motion having caught his eye and he followed it with the tip, shot taking the snake through an eye -- not that he noticed, engaged in drawing and firing again, and again -- those damn snakes took a lot of killing! He stopped with an arrow still nocked, watching the snake.

Dinah approved, her knife having followed his first shot, pinning the thing just behind the skull. "Good shooting, Roy."

He eyed the placement of the shots critically, then nodded. "Watch the tail, they lash..." he warned, glaring at the still-dying snake. Slade'd broken the neck of one with a throw a few days ago, and it had thrashed madly.

"I can wait to get my knife back," she told him, but she did nod. "They're vicious predators."

"Yeah, and seem drawn by us," he muttered. "Wha', we smell different so we're a good treat?"

Dinah laughed, low and soft at that. "I guess so. They nor the ...wherries? seem to fear us."

"Why fear something y'don't know?" Roy shrugged slightly, waiting out the death thrashing to go reclaim his arrows and her knife. "Wish they were good for anything, but... Even the hides wouldn't tan up good, it doesn't look like."

"Not in my expertise range..." She accepted her knife, cleaning it with a bit of her citrus water and a good cloth before putting it away.

"The scaly ones, maybe... huh. I'll think about it." He cleaned the tips of his arrows much the same way, before settling them back in the quiver. "Let's move, before the wherries find the dinner we left 'em!" he said as he heard a whistle-shriek, suiting action to quick word.

She moved with him, and they were soon falling back into the 'find-note-collect' pattern from before their lunch.

Roy reached out and caught her shoulder, freezing in place as he scented decay, searching for whatever had caused the scent. A big cactus-like plant, and the young wherry tangled in its spines, soon presented itself as the culprit. "Oh, damn... how far around that're we going to have to go is just not nice. Didn't know they'd get _that_ big!"

"I haven't seen it before. Looks like a succulent... cacti type, despite the abundance of water." She scrutinized it carefully, from a distance.

"One of the few times I got to go out, I 'bout fell over a little one. They throw the spines. Or at least the little one did."

"Oh... Such an effective defense mechanism -- or maybe predatory?" She eyed the dead wherry, and shook her head. "Let's give it a wide berth for now. I'll test it at a later time."

"With cryo gear, please," Roy agreed, swinging wide around the thing with her, then getting back on course. "Funny thing? I think the spines were hollow..."

"Really? I'd say that means a definite predator, then. Like a flytrap." She would definitely explore that later.

"That carcass on it tells me that much... 'flytrap'? I didn't hear any of the damn bugs buzzing around, and we should've..."

"Noticed that whatever does the job for carrion... most likely the snakes and such, tend to not be buzz-arounds. Very few true flying insects that I've seen yet."

"Point. The less flying nuisances around, the better, I think, too."

"Except it makes the agro job harder. Not for me, working with Pernese plants, as evidently they can pollinate well. But the plants we brought tend to rely on bees, butterflies, et cetera."

"And you'd have to introduce them, and hope the natives don't decide they like 'em for lunch," Roy nodded. "That is trouble."

"We'll see how things go. Me... I'm probably going to try and hybridize, if I can get time with the gene splicers. Make the foreign stuff more acceptable to the Pernese pollinators."

"Hope it works," Roy said, moving to hack their way through some more of that heavy brush again, working their way back, following his instincts and the sun as guides. "I still can't get used to the double shadows from the moons... this'd be pure hell at night."

"Tell me about it. Though, it's not as bad as -- " She shut off that line of thought, remembering the odd cycles of selected light filtering in her old labs, before the war. Before she lost everything. Roy just laid a hand on her shoulder again for a second, not willing to pry into her past.

She fell back into her silence, then slowly started tutoring him, working on improving his knowledge. It was easier to teach, than to fall back into more personal conversation. He listened well, asking quick, sharp questions about this and that point as they moved, making it back to the sled with enough time to pilot back in the light, though it was getting well towards the short twilight before they made it back to Landing.

"Thank you, Roy. For all your help, and for your company." She did not seem at all inclined to go toward the bonfire crowd. Another thing that marked her out as unusual in comparison with most of the rest of the colonists, most of whom hated to be kept away from the nightly celebration.

"Any time -- I mean it," he told her, trying to see if he could spot Slade and Dick in their usual area. "Tired? That was a heck of a hike we took."

"Just thought I'd start processing the samples," her voice trailed off as she caught his glance to the Square. "Here, just give me your pack, and you can swing by later to pick it back up."

"Nah, unless they're somewhere different than usual, they're at home. I'll go with you, then head home -- I'm half beat."

"Alright." She smiled again. "You have the making of a great agro... you have an eye for things."

"Been a while since I had reason to look for beauty the right way..." he said softly, then louder, "Thanks. Dodging _ts'eh_ \--near-scorpions, pseudo-rattlers, and mock-vultures taught me to keep m'eyes open a long time ago."

She eyed him a long moment, then reached out, her hand brushing his arm briefly. "Not only good, smart company, but experienced. I think I'm going to be in good hands dirtside, if you keep going with me."

"Rather go with you than chase the boxes," Roy told her with a grin, shaking off his thoughts as they headed for the agronomy sheds to unload their packs.

Dinah was quick about her work, laying things just where she wanted them, and then set her pack in its place. "Good night, Roy. And thank you again."

"Night," he wished her well. "You're welcome." Every bit as tired as he'd said, he headed for their house, seeing the light already on with a smile. They had eaten again on the sled, but he was hungry... He'd gotten spoiled by the Yoko's abundant food.

Slade was still up, sharpening some knives on an old fashioned whetstone, while Dick prowled the small prefab. Roy dropped the pack next to the door, un-strapping the machete from the quiver before he dropped it, too, feeling every one of the probably thirty klicks they had hiked through, and the strain in his arms from the machete. "Hey," he said softly, headed for the food prep to see what they had available.

Dick intercepted him, "You look beat. Sit, I'll grab ya food." 

For once, Roy didn't argue, and dumped himself on the couch tiredly.

"Look like you tromped over half of Pern," Slade drawled.

"Nah.. just about forty klicks of it, in damn jungle... glad for th' machete, though. Big help." He took the plate Dick handed him and tore into the food hungrily. "She led, most'a th' time, if I didn't need t'cut through stuff..."

"Impressive," Slade said. "Make sure you get Dick to rub you down after the shower."

"Ooh yeah..." Roy purred, pleased at that idea. "She's quick... but... she's spacer," he said quietly. "Won' know much til she gets t'run tests, but y'remember that spiny plant I nearly got into?" He waited for nods, then, "Nearly walked onta one 'bout the same height I was... had a wherry it was workin' on eatin', looked like..."

Slade shuddered at that. "Great. Even the plants want to eat us, too."

"...yeeeah. An' a tunnel snake, 'bout... 8 meters? She saw it fast's I did... and is as quick w' a knife as I was with the shots. R'mind me, try skinning the next one we kill, see if the skin'll tan."

"Good idea. Might be able to shrink-dry it, around other things," Slade pointed out.

"Yeah, that'd work if it won't dry flat," Roy said after a few minutes to think. "Found a _bunch_ of different stuff. She's got a bread goin', from one'a the seaweeds... tastes pretty good. Kinda like her. She don' pry. Quiet. Smart."

"Sounds good, Roy. Go get clean, then go to bed. Dick, take care of him."

"Mm-hm. Arrow tips, morning, clean better. Night, Slade."

Dick nodded, moving to make sure Roy made it into the shower, actually got scrubbed down, and went to rub out his back and shoulders, stretched out in the bed they shared. Sleepily, Roy told him. "Eyes like ours... don' like caves. Used t'bein' in dark... don' like, what I think..."

"Oh?" Dick listened, concentrating on making sure his partner could still move the next day.

"Mm-hm... she lost people... an' got trapped... damn nasties..." he sighed, curling down against the bed to let Dick get to a different angle, nearly asleep as his partner's hands took the ache out of his muscles.

"Everyone here's lost someone, 'cept the little kids."

"Family. Husband... stopped, before her name. I know, everyone has... but..."

"You like her," Dick noted. "A lot. Some kinda pull?"

"...dunno," Roy considered that a second, with his brain mostly asleep. "Didn' push. Or 'spect me t'be a kid... listened. Watched."

"'kay." Dick snuggled down next to him.

"Mm-hm," Roy moved enough to get an arm over him and went solidly asleep.

***

After a couple of weeks, Roy had wheedled at Dinah until she finally came to the Bonfire Square. Slade noted them approaching, taking in the small, dark haired woman interestedly. Roy didn't take to that many people, but he was smiling as he talked to her, bringing her towards Slade and Dick. "Slade, Dick, this's Dinah Lance. Dinah, this's Dick Grayson and Slade Wilson. "

Dick gave her a long look, then reached out to shake, reserving judgment for the moment as he studied her. He could see what Roy meant about eyes like theirs -- not that that was unusual for this colony, but... most of them kept it more hidden. And he could see how she would have kept up with Roy, too, that quick, graceful walk would let her cover a lot of ground in a hurry. "Hi."

"Hello." She took his hand and shook, with a grip that implied the ability to bring more strength to it, if she needed to.

Slade shook her hand as well, feeling the calluses from being a hands-on botanist, and that extra strength that belied her frame.

Roy eyed his partner a second, then realized he was pretty much the same way about Stone's kid, the mechanic Dick tended to spend so much time with because they worked the same shifts. "Dinah found a little one of those spine-throwing plants... they're hollow inside, the spines."

"Useful?" Slade asked, watching Dinah look a bit more animated at the thought of discussing plants.

"The thorns are long enough, and hollow, and sturdy enough to potentially replace hypodermic needles. Just enough of the nerve toxin remains in the thorn itself, after being harvested, to actually deaden the entry point." She rubbed at one of her fingers knowingly.

"A natural hypodermic?" that caught Dick's attention. "Man, Slade, what a help, if we didn't have to machine those..."

Roy nodded, moving to his partner to settle almost leaning against his side. "And if they don't hurt going in..."

"A very good find." He cocked his head to the side, studying the small woman for a second, not particularly impressed with what she'd said, if she was getting close to one of his boys. "A tendency to test on yourself could be dangerous."

Her eyes snapped dangerously enough, until she met his gaze and saw something that wasn't disdain, but a kind of concern. She relaxed then, even nodded. "Never do it, until I've read every chemical chain involved. I've worked with five worlds' worth of plants; I can recognize most toxins."

Roy relaxed a little at the confirmation that she really was as careful as she'd seemed to be out in the jungle with him. 

Slade nodded at that, as well. "And you did say you'd already found the toxin... is it just in the thorns, or in the sap as well?"

"The sap could be fatal, in large doses. Is, to most things Pernese, and that will one day be us," she said. "Actually hyperactivates, so to speak, when it interacts with boron."

"Huh. Could dip some of my arrow tips in the stuff to use on the snakes," Roy said thoughtfully, considering that. "Couldn't use 'em on anything we were gonna eat, but..."

Dinah nodded at that, even finishing his sentence for him, "But it would be an effective defensive weapon."

Slade felt those words impact and weighed them for the sheer survivor sentiment in them, then he nodded. "Never hurts to be prepared."

Roy and Dick both nodded quickly at that. "Find anything else really interesting, Dinah?" Roy asked her, "That you want to share, I mean?"

"I've got a few experiments still running," she admitted. "Depending on how they turn out, I may have some help for the medics."

Slade tipped his head to the side, "Isn't it normally medical that has the most trouble finding substitutes for Terran drugs on colony worlds, and even adapting them?"

Dinah nodded at that. "This world... I am _damn_ glad we are off the beaten path. If half what I suspect about some of these plants are true... It's a pharmacy in bloom!" She lit up with passion about what she was already finding. 

"You're up to what? At least twenty safe foodstuffs?" Roy pressed, getting a soft nod.

"Not just me, the others do run those tests--"

"Only on what the kids bring in," Roy retorted.

"That's still more than Ceti ever managed," Slade said softly, impressed by the thought. "I know Roy's brought back some of the fruits you've cleared... They've all been good, if different."

"That trick with the water is great," Dick spoke up. "Seems like it's colder, too. Fulmar and Vic love it, for when we're working on one of the sleds."

She blushed at hearing the samples (and her trick) were getting shared out. "It actually helps some people to be hydrated; a few can't seem to hold water without some form of sugar in it."

"True. I've seen sol -- men have issues with that."

Roy cocked his head curiously, but if Slade was agreeing with it, he'd listen. "Huh. Weird, but I guess it makes sense..."

Dinah smiled at her young helper. "Honestly, I couldn't have gotten this far without your help, Roy."

Slade approved strongly of Dinah openly praising Roy where they could see. It didn't happen nearly often enough, though Joel would, if rarely. Roy ducked his head at the praise, starting to shake it off before Dick kicked him in the calf. He didn't jump, but he did glare at Dick, before he looked back at Dinah. "I... thanks, but somebody'd have gone with you..."

"No. They don't think it's important." She looked angry at that.

"It will sink in, as things get lost in transition," Slade assured her. "You'll have the answers, and they won't."

Roy nodded at that, glad to hear Slade encouraging her -- he had tried, too. Dick shrugged his shoulder, nodding. "Seems like the stuff that grows here is a lot smarter to start using, fast as we can..."

"We'll try to make it work right," Dinah said, including not only Roy, but all of them, for their open support.

***

As they headed home later that night, Dinah having headed back towards wherever she was living, Roy cocked his head at Slade curiously. "So? What do you think of her?"

"Steel in velvet at times." Slade smiled at Roy. "Survivor, and an unlikely one at that. Spacer, like you thought. I'm betting on a higher gee satellite, too."

"Why?" both boys asked curiously.

"Moves quick, strength is higher than she ought to have..."

"...oh. The higher gravity would do that, wouldn't it? Used to working against more resistance." Dick put that one together after a few moments.

Slade nodded at Dick's appraisal. "She still wrinkles her nose at people moving close by her; hasn't shaken years of living in canned air, where personal hygiene is the law."

"...Yeah. I saw that, too," Roy agreed. "Doesn't keep a lot of distance, but she does give some of the other techs a _look_ if they've been out in the muck..."

"Doesn't use anything artificially scented... that was another clue to the spacer origin," Slade pointed out, as if it were a lesson. 

"Wouldn't want the scent clogging up her nose, either, but that makes sense, too," Roy filed that away for later.

"Keep encouraging her, Roy." Slade smiled at his redheaded young friend. He liked what she was doing, and if Roy could keep her spirits up, all the better.

"Well yeah," Roy said with a shrug, as he pushed the door open to let them all in to go get cleaned up themselves. 

***

After the bonfire one night, several weeks in, Roy trotted back towards the agro sheds, rapping at the door to Dinah's lab, pretty sure she'd still be there. He wasn't sure, some days, that she didn't just live there.

"Come on in, Roy," she called.

"Might not be me, you know," he called back as he came in, finding a spot near her to perch. "Interesting news at the bonfire tonight," he said idly.

"You have a distinctive knock. Sounds are as identifying as sight, you know." She smiled for him, an expression that still only rarely graced her features outside her dealings with him. "What news?"

"Did you hear that a couple of the kids have little pets, now, some of those gorgeous mini-dragons we saw that trip out along the beach?" He knew just how engrossed she could get in one of her projects, and she might not have heard.

"Heard. Pol Nietro and Bay Harkanon came to get some Pernese food samples, to test for omnivorous habits," Dinah told him, even as she continued brushing pollen lightly over the reproductive parts of the plant she was working on.

"...just once, I am going to know about something before you do," he muttered, shaking his head in exasperation. "Should have known they'd have made a racket about it, though. The girl had it with her at the bonfire... tiny, compared to the full-grown ones. Okay, since you know, what else did you hear?"

"Not much else. Her and one of the traveling boys. A planned expedition to find out more about them."

"Huh. Traveling... oh, yeah." He remembered Dick mentioning some of the gear they'd shipped down, wagons like he'd grown up in -- but he'd changed the subject quickly, not wanting to dwell on that. "Well. Dinah, have you eaten since lunch?"

She waved at a half eaten citron, and a mostly eaten seaweed and fingertail roll. "That was lunch. Not sure how long ago." She sat back at last, satisfied with what she had done. "If this works... it may be the first foreign/Pernese hybrid, and it is beneficial to both the beasts and us." She indicated a plant that almost looked like an immature corn stalk.

"Dinah..." he started to fuss at her, before his attention was caught by the plant. "What're you trying to cross the corn with?"

"Found a native plant that is very similar... but it just doesn't bear a properly edible ear. I'm hoping -- if this takes, the corn will still produce, but have the native resistances to the blights hitting some of the grains they brought. If I can get this hybridized, there's hope for wheat, barley, hops... all of it. And it will be Pernese."

Roy nodded, eyes on the plant, wondering how he had failed to notice it on their trips, and old songs murmured in the back of his head for long moments. "We saw that long grass that might be like wheat, you said..."

"I thought so, but it may be better for the barley, from what the samples showed. The corn I stumbled on by accident."

"Good accident," Roy said softly. "Where did you find it?"

"Remember that rise we found, other side of the river?"

"Yeah, I do," Roy nodded, making plans to get over there. "Are you done with it for a little while, then?"

"Yes." She situated it near eleven other small stalks. "So, what now?" She eyed the other plants in various stages of tests.

"Come get dinner," he answered, "unless there's something you just can't leave."

She blinked at him. "I..." She nodded then, scooped up the remains of her earlier meal, and took it over to feed the pigs.

Roy nodded as she gave in, and headed across the half-lit squares back to his house once she was done feeding the pigs. This was progress. Normally she protested more when he tried to get her to come be at least a little social.

***

Sean bit back one curse as he struggled with the cow, but the other slipped, in a language that Red shouldn't know. Roy was just on his way past the vet shed to meet Dinah again when he heard that curse -- one Dick used when he was really stressed -- spit in a low voice, and spun towards it, looking to see if his partner was over there for some reason. He saw a boy, a year younger, maybe two, trying to settle a brood animal down despite being vexed with her, his shoulders set with a 'don't mess with me' attitude, and more of that language spilling out.

Roy headed that way, calling out quietly, "Need a hand with her?"

"Bloody beast needs a pill," Sean said, none too happy, but accepting the extra hands. "All so she can have a fardling sheep."

"Sheep? For what? Who'd have the time to shear 'em?" Roy asked as he got hold of the cow's head more securely, out of the other boy's way.

"Won't catch me wearing wool in this weather," Sean snapped, finally shoving the pill down the beast's throat.

"Too hot for it," Roy agreed completely, "but it's not like they're any other use, meat gets tough and nasty so fast..."

Sean snorted and nodded. "Good for stealing and eating fast, but not much else."

Roy nodded, completely agreeing. "And not even any challenge to take," he shrugged.

Sean grunted. "See you over at the farm sheds, sometimes."

"Yeah. Workin' on learning what stuff's useful, mostly. Name's Roy. Didn' think anyone that'd be usin' that language would be runnin' with the vets," he observed idly.

Sean looked suspiciously at Roy. "Like you know it?"

"Enough t'recognize when I'm bein' cussed, an' a few other words. Nah, my partner's the one that speaks it."

Sean shook his head. "None th' others come in to Landing," he said, directly refuting such a claim.

"Didn't say he was from your clans," Roy replied. "Just him and me -- and the guy that took us in -- from off Augirae. But he's Rom born."

"Hmm." That did intrigue Sean. "Sean Connell."

"Roy Harper. My partner's Dick Grayson. He's normally working over in mechanics, or Stores."

"Okay." Sean looked back inside the shed to see Red was ready for help, giving a curt nod before going back in. Roy took off at a run to join Dinah, not really regretting the time he'd lost talking to the other kid. He'd mention him to Dick tonight, see what he thought.

***

"Hey," Roy said into the darkness, hand running down Dick's arm.

"Yeah?"

"Met a kid today, workin' at the vet sheds, cussing a cow that wouldn't hold still -- calling it the same things you used to call the trouble we'd find."

"Yeah?" Dick's fingers curled on Roy's.

"Y'only got one word tonight?" Roy teased him. "Yeah. Talked to him a bit... he's from one of those couple of Rom clans we heard were on the ship. Didn't believe I ought to know what he was saying, either."

"Not s'prised." Dick shrugged his shoulders. Roy was family now, and Slade. The family he'd been born to was a hazy memory some days, a nightmare others.

"Said none of the others came in, must mean there's a reason he is." Roy shrugged back, settling closer against him.

Dick nuzzled at him. "Vet sheds, y' said?"

"Mm-hm. Sean Connell. Maybe a year and a half younger'n us. Looks a little like you, but more like my hair color."

Dick snorted. "Getting a crush?" He was only teasing, and Roy should know it; they were inseparable and had always been.

Roy gave that the dismissive noise it deserved. "Not a chance. No more'n you on Vic. Just thought you might have somethin' in common with him, maybe. Or not."

"Got you. Could meet him." Dick pressed against his partner, snorting at the idea of him and Vic. If it didn't have an engine, Vic wasn't interested. "See later... right now, Stone's been busting on all the sleds' the last week, Vic's about ready to kill his dad."

"Yeah. The shuttles too, from what I heard," Roy agreed, shifting to rub at his partner's shoulders a little. "Isn't that about normal for him and his dad, though?"

"Yeah, pretty much." He'd been around for one too many arguments between the almost-adult Vic and Fulmar to not agree with that. "Workin' so hard on the sleds 'cause they're sending more miners out looking at some other likely spots," Dick yawned.

"Mmm," Roy nodded, settling for the moment. 

*** 

It was a few days before Dick had enough time to make his way over to the vet sheds, to see if the Sean Roy had mentioned was around.

He didn't see another guy around immediately, but there was a bright redheaded girl fussing into a stall, a winged little reptile fluttering around her. He remembered having heard the announcement about the little lizards, and they saw them every once in a while. Roy was more interested in them than he was, honestly. The girl's fluttering made him curious, though, and he headed that way, finding an out of the way spot to lean against.

"Sean, you told yer Pa you were just coming to check the brooding. You know Ma doesn't like me to go out by myself, not past the markers."

"Your Da needed a hand," the unseen boy in the stall shot back. "Not alone. Got your lizard, doncha?"

"And you know Ma doesn't think Duke's enough," the girl replied, jabbing a hand against her hip. Dick couldn't help a little bit of a smile as he stayed out of the way.

"Fine. But I'm not carrying your sack," he told her, standing up... and he quickly noticed the high-cheekboned, black haired, blue eyed boy. "Looking for Red, he's in the fields."

"I'm not... but if you're Sean Connell, _sa'astimos._ "

Sean eyed him long and hard from underneath hair that was a lot like Roy's. "So Harper was telling truth."

" _Arvah,_ he was. Dick Grayson, Kaladraysha born."

Sean just shrugged. "Pernese now."

"Yes, we are. But who else would know to say that?" Dick asked him, glad to hear that they at least seemed to agree that this was where they were, and what they had to learn to deal with.

"All that matters is Harper wasn't lying," Sean said. "You're mech?"

"Yeah. Most of the time. Going to have to figure out something else eventually, but it'll keep me a few years."

"Da has ideas. Ma's worse. Red lets me stick around." He made no move to introduce the girl, but he did scowl when another lizard joined hers. "Told you to stay out!"

"They listen?" Dick asked curiously, then gave him a sympathetic look. "Folks tied tight to the old ways?"

"Yeah." Sean snorted, and watched his lizard until it left... taking the first one as well. 

"Sean, you made me a promise..." the girl began.

"Didna. Just said I would, not when," he told her.

Dick looked at the pair of them with such bright hair with a little bit of amusement, then looked back at Sean. "Any use to them, or more like a smart pet?" The troubles of the old ways were definitely better left behind where they belonged.

"Good warning system. Fight tunnel snakes -- and they win. Can fish too."

"Lot of use, then. And they can be taught? I remember hearing you have to be there before they hatch, right?" //Something that would take on those snakes... That'd be great for Roy, when he's out there.//

"Yeah."

"They're starving when they do," the girl interjected, and Sean didn't quite scowl, but he did look bored.

"So they need to be fed, to keep them. Good thing to know," he nodded over at her, then shrugged back at Sean. "Wouldn't be such a bad thing, to know someone else around here. An' if Roy and I can manage what you did, might need a little advice...? If you would?" he offered a hand, as he spoke, not sure if it would be agreed on or not.

Sean eyed it, spit in his hand, and offered a binding agreement to help in the form of the handshake. 

Dick nodded as they shook, agreement bound, and then nodded the girl's way politely. "I ought to get back. Good to meet you."

She nodded to him, and behind his back as he headed away he could still hear them.

"You could have introduced me," the girl said, not snapping, but a little firm as she and Sean headed out the other way.

"Why? He'd hear your name come up some time, the way your ma bellows it."

Dick smiled to himself as he went, now wondering just what her name was.

***

After a fairly long conference with Dick about the dragonets, as he was hearing them called, Roy brought them up to Dinah on their next long trip out. "Remember talking about those dragonets the redheads wound up with? I heard some of the vets were messing with them a little, have they found out anything interesting that you've heard?"

"Some eggs were tinkered with," she told him, not completely sure if she approved of that or not.

"Dick wound up talking to the guy that found them along with the girl, a few days ago. Got from him that they can be taught, that they hunt the tunnel snakes... word out of the labs match any of that?"

Dinah cocked her head to the side, watching his face. "Hadn't really paid attention, Roy."

"Yeah, you're pretty well busy all the time with the plants," Roy admitted. "Just... it's kind of nice to hear about a species that belongs here that's got some sense, even if it's not any more than a dog's or a cat's."

Dinah considered that, a long moment. "More sense than that, if they can handle the snakes, Roy. We've seen the snakes be too canny. And these things evaded capture for how long?"

"And they only wound up catching the babies because they were hungry enough to take food from anything, and must have decided the first thing that fed them was 'mother'..." He shrugged. "You're right about the snakes, though."

"So what is running in that head of yours, hon?" She smiled gently at him.

"That they might be good help for us, if we could find some eggs, or you especially, the trips you've been making without me..."

"Only short day trips," she said, a little alarm in her eyes. "I mean...you've always helped me..." There was a hint of panic that she seemed to be fighting down, but it showed in the tone of her voice.

"And I'm not going to quit," he told her firmly, reaching a hand out to her, settling it on her shoulder, bringing her in closer once he was sure she would let him. "It's just that you're right, we've seen those snakes do the damnedest things, and if there's something native that could warn us, it makes sense to at least give it a try... doesn't it?"

She settled, her voice going soft again. "You're right. I just... maybe if you had one." //Can't care too much, will fail it.//

He tried to pull her a little closer, arm going close around her shoulders completely. "You don't want one? I remember you thought they were pretty..."

"I don't have time," she said, hiding behind the excuse.

"Hm. Alright." Roy wasn't going to argue with her about it. "Well, we'd have to see about finding eggs, first anyway, because I'm not sure about whatever mucking around the vets did."

"We'll see. I can talk to Bay for you."

"Alright. Have to have one for Dick... and... I might convince Slade to take one, as much work out on the stakes as he's doing," Roy didn't really care for Slade being that far from them that often, especially alone -- or nearly so.

"If we can't find natives, I'll ask Bay."

Roy nodded at that, arm still tight around her. "We're a good team, Di, I'm not about to mess that up."

She hugged him around his waist, and then let the subject drop. Roy let it go for the moment, thinking about how to move the eggs without letting them get cold.

***

After Dinah had come back from sounding out the vets with the word that the adaptations were to mainly make them more intelligent, Roy and Dick had decided that might not be so bad. Once he let her know that, she talked to the vets for him, and he showed up to the vets' a few days later to ask to trade for the eggs. After a little discussion with Bay, he came back to the house with four, and a plan to make sure Dinah was there when they hatched.

Slade watched the careful preparations Roy made, amused at his ward, but not saying a word. Dick mostly just rolled his eyes, but he was more interested in the little creatures after talking to Sean than he was really willing to let on.

Managing to get Dinah over for dinner early in the evening the eggs were supposed to hatch took every bit of skill at persuasion Roy had ever even thought about having, but he was grinning as he finally got her inside. All of them could cook, and with Dinah intended to be there, he had gone for mainly Pern-based food. The green-blooded meat still got to him, but it tasted fine once it was cooked.

Dick glanced up from the piece of an engine he was tinkering with on the low table in the living room, and freed a hand to wave. "Hey, Dinah."

"Hello," she said, nodding politely to first him, then Slade, who had echoed the younger man. "I brought a fruit juice I've been working on, sort of a lemonade."

"That should go well with dinner, then," Slade told her with a slight smile. It was rare enough for him to be home this early, but the boys had managed to convince him that having one of the little creatures would be good -- and watching Roy work himself up over the meal had been some of the best amusement he'd had in days. "If any of it's edible, that is," he added, just loud enough to be heard from the kitchen.

 _"Sla~ade!_ " Roy protested instantly and indignantly.

"I'm sure Roy outdid himself," Dinah quickly defended him. "He's gotten handy with the native herbs we've tested."

Slade let his smile widen at her quick defense, pleased with it. "True enough. Speaking of which, Roy..." 

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go check on the wherry again... stuff takes forever to finish cooking, if you don't want it to taste like bad leather," he muttered as he ducked back into the small kitchen.

Dinah followed, to put the thermoses of the fruit drink in there. "It does smell good."

Roy flushed at her, shaking his head. "Just hope it turns out okay."

"It will." She smiled, then returned and sat in the main room, watching Dick work on the piece of hardware.

Roy grinned to himself as he checked the progress of dinner... then he looked out the window, startled, as a soft hum became audible. There were dragonets perched just outside, humming.

Slade picked it up from the other room, and looked quickly toward the warming pots. "Turn the heat off to the food, and bring the wherry in here," he called to Roy. "Dick, get your hands out of that thing."

"And get 'em clean?" Dick said as he did as he was told, heading straight to clean up.

Roy flicked switches to do just that, and went for what he'd kept of the carcass and chopped, first, figuring they would do better with raw meat. "I cooked that for _us_ , not the hatchlings, Slade," he said as he moved in the rest of what he'd had ready. "They can eat the raw stuff I left." 

Sean had said the older lizards tended to bring some of everything edible. While he drew the limit at bringing bugs into their house, he had brought in grain and berries, and a few small fish, to teach them along with the carcass.

"Didn't realize you hadn't tossed the carcass out yet, Kid." Slade smiled at him, moving the pots closer to the couch. Dinah watched as the men readied for the hatching, eyeing Roy uneasily at the fact there were four eggs.

Roy gave Slade an utterly disdainful look at that foolishness. He knew better, didn't he? Then he felt Dinah's eyes on him and looked back at her. She was uneasy, he could see that, so he just shrugged slightly, casually as he could, and smiled sweetly at her. "She said no-one else she knew of wanted the last one."

She sat back a little, shaking her head. "Good luck getting the one you want," she said, half worried that her very presence would jinx the hatching.

Slade wanted to tell her that companionship, even a semi-intelligent creature, was very much a needed thing in her life, but kept silent for the moment. He didn't want to upset her any more than she already was, at least, not in the middle of this.

Roy shrugged a shoulder and settled near one of the pots to wait. "Doesn't really matter which, does it?"

Dick shrugged. "I dunno, but any of 'em would be a help, especially since these're supposed to be smarter anyway."

"Just as long as you are happy," Dinah said softly. 

"Dinah... they're very independent," Slade said, having learned as much as he could from the time Roy mentioned it. "Take care of themselves, with just a little nudge and push, almost from the day after hatching."

She looked at him, seeing that he understood her fears, that she would fail someone dependent on her again. Slowly, she slid off the couch, down beside the boys, and Roy leaned against her as the eggs shuddered and bounced on top of the sands. Then the first started to crack, a brown nose and wing-tips poking out. Roy started to reach for it, then pulled his hand back -- and was jabbed in the ribs from both sides. Dick said into his ear, "Take it, Roy. Your idea, you first."

"I... okay, yeah..." He reached again, meat in one hand, other carefully righting the dragonet as it tumbled free of the broken egg. The little creature creeled impatiently, _need_ and hunger pulsing at him hard, making his guts nearly cramp. It stretched its neck out for the meat hungrily and tried to take the piece whole, though it was practically bigger than its entire head.

"Bite," Roy said, letting it chew on that while he used his utility knife to cut smaller slivers for it. The dragonet creeled again, still trying to take the piece whole, half choking on it. He reached out, pulling the piece back to help the little one get it torn apart, not wanting it to choke.

Another egg started to split, and bronze wing-tips like the one Sorka had started pushing through the shell. That caught Dick's attention -- so lovely, and bronze -- but he looked up at Slade, cocking his head to the side a little.

"Take it, Kid...you boys are the ones more for this." Slade looked proud of both boys.

Dick nodded, reaching to tear some of the wherry into smaller bits before the little one could push the shell all the way open. Waiting for it, feeling the hunger radiating off of it -- Sean was wrong, it wasn't just a lizard. It was something more.

It forced the shell apart and half-fell forward. He reached out to catch it, and held the first piece of meat out, letting it take it, and another piece, trying to make the hunger pressing at him in ways it hadn't in years _stop_. The dragonet creeled and pressed closer to him, feeling his anxiety as much as its own. 

While the tiny bronze fully distracted Dick, the smaller of the two remaining eggs gave a fitful shake, making Slade reach forward by instinct. His hands were around the egg's space as it just burst open from the trapped bronze within, and he felt a gut-wrenching hunger press in against him.

Roy pushed some of the food towards Slade, though he was feeding his, too, still trying to make sure it didn't choke as it attacked the food he'd brought in. The noises of feeding, hungry hatchlings echoed in the room for a few moments, while the last egg rocked fitfully, slowly, the hatchling inside it trying to get free...

Dinah started to shake, just a little, before she moved quickly, tapping at the fractures in the egg, caught up in the sense of 'trapped' she felt, trying to help. A golden beak appeared finally, and then the dragonet fell into one of her hands. Dinah was quick to feed it, trying to calm her new friend and herself from the absolute claustrophobia pushing in on her. She moved away from the others, taking a good bit of the meat to feed the gold, needing the space.

Roy was too distracted with his little brown dragonet to really notice Dinah moving, and Dick had half curled around his little bronze, feeding it in tiny, neat portions but just as quickly as it could have wanted, holding it close. Slade was actually laughing softly at his greedy little friend, a sound neither boy was too used to. The large man was feeding the bronze in small pieces, and being firm despite being importuned for more.

Dick tried to follow that example, remembering now that neither one of them was _quite_ so hungry that Sean had said you had to be firm with the little things, but the little dragonet in his hands was so hungry...

"Dick...'s'okay..." Roy reached over and stroked his partner's hair back. "We've got dinner coming along, and they just hatched."

Dick shifted back into Roy's touch, looking over at him with blown-wide blue eyes, but nodded. "Yeah... yeah we do."

Roy moved closer to him, and snuggled up, helping control the feeding of both their dragonets. Slade watched, having sated the one he held enough to get him to sleepy/lazy nibbling. Dinah was very quietly whispering in her native dialect, stroking the queen's eye-ridge and still feeding her, not trapping her into a small space. 

Dick settled, his little bronze in his lap, finally full and sleepy, and worriedly stroked one of the bulges along its belly, "Sean did say they gorged themselves right at hatching, right? He'll be okay..."

"Yes, Dick," Roy told him. "Now let's go gorge us," he said, nuzzling his partner gently. "Help me get dinner finished?"

Dick nuzzled him back, then shifted the little bronze to his shoulder to slide to his feet. "Yeah... what still needs work?"

Roy dragged him with, and let Slade deal with the woman who had pulled deep into herself, like Dick had been doing. Fond as he was of Dinah, his partner came first with him, always.

Slade moved over to her, slowly, letting her see him moving, and crouched next to her, bronze splayed out over his forearm. "Dinah?" he called to her softly.

She flinched, but slowly her eyes came to his face, focusing on the here and now as she cradled the small dragonet along her palm and forearm. "So tiny..."

"They are small," he agreed. "Are you alright?"

She nodded... then she took a deep breath. "They said it was four cycles before they found me," she whispered. "I felt like I was there again, but it was her, too weak to crack the shell."

"You're not there, Dinah. You're safe, and she's safe, and free, and well fed... It's all right." //Four days, trapped.// It sounded like utter horror to him, too.

She nodded slower this time. "Sorry...the psychs said I was okay. Or I wouldn't have made it onto the expedition. I promise, I'm okay." It wasn't a comedic assurance... he could tell she was afraid Slade would take away her access to Roy. He, of course, would do nothing of the kind.

"Dinah, it's all right. We all reacted... extremely strongly, to them... and they to us, apparently. Roy's wolfed at its food. Dick was... not coping well. It's all right." The need to protect his boys' privacy ran strong in him, but she obviously needed the reassurance.

She looked down at the small golden dragonet she cradled. "Okay."

"Good. If you need to walk around, I think the boys still need a little more time on the food," he told her softly, half wanting to lay a hand on her shoulder to reassure her more, but... she kept herself so closed off that he thought it might do more damage than good.

"No, I think...I think it feels right to be here." She looked up, shyly, at him.

Slade nodded. "Good," and did lay his hand on her shoulder then, lightly.

She didn't flinch or move away, just dropped her eyes again, and started petting her gold. "I think... Hope."

"For her name? That sounds good. I had thought... Major, for mine." There was a sad, dark look in his eye for a moment, before he could clear it away. He focused on the boys' voices lightly bantering back and forth, letting them and his small friend draw him back to the present. She reached up, touching his face for just a brief instant, in understanding at the pain.

Slade let her, even dipped his head a little into it, and waited for her to pull away before shifting to stand, just as the noises of the boys moving around stopped, and Roy said softly, "Okay, food's ready."

The mention and thought of food made both the bronze and the gold in the adult hands cheep sleepily, which drew a soft, tender smile to Dinah's lips.

Slade couldn't help noticing that that look made her a strikingly beautiful woman -- then pushed the thought away to offer her a hand up so that they could move to the table to eat with his family and the woman they seemed to be adopting.

Dick had grinned down at his own cheeping hatchling, then settled in at the table, even closer to Roy than he would usually sit. Dinah ate one handedly, keeping her queen cradled in her lap the whole time. Slade was willing to let it be a quiet meal, noting that even without the flow of words between them, that they all seemed to feel like they had grown closer. He eyed his bronze, and wondered if the empathy was a little less specific than the xeno-bios thought.

***

Dinah stared disconsolately at Roy. "We lost our own trail."

"...Apparently. Question is, how in hell did we pull that off?"

"I think you distracted me... about the same time Hope found that new berry and distracted me too."

"You're probably right," Roy agreed, shaking his head. "And Trouble came flitting up with that bug in his mouth almost at the same time..." He trailed off, sighing before he kept talking. "We've been doing this almost a year, and _this_ is the time we get lost?"

"We're still getting used to them." She nuzzled the gold on her shoulder, glad of the falconer's pads she had added to all her tunics. "I could try and use the comm, but we've already seen the trouble they have with this dense foliage."

"Yeah, that's not going to work, especially all the way out here... Trouble, where's the sled?"

His brown cheeped and vanished, then came back, image of the sled in its' clearing pushed into his mind. "Trouble, that doesn't help..."

The brown fluttered unhappily, feeling his worry, and vanished and came back again.

"Damn... try with Hope, Dinah?"

She nodded and her hand cupped around Hope's jaw, but the little gold vanished away and returned just as quickly.

"I _don't_ want to have to try and send Trouble after Major or Chakano..." His brown cheeped happily at the names, shifting on his shoulder, drawing his sharp, " _No_."

"We might have to... if Trouble goes, and Hope stays, they can relay back and forth to the searchers," Dinah said calmly. "I hate bothering Slade and Dick... but better asking them than colony admin."

" _Definitely_ ," Roy agreed. "Wish I was willing to risk my direction sense, but in this deep jungle stuff, it's so easy to _get_ turned around..."

"I know." Dinah reached over and gripped his shoulder. "Let's write a note for Trouble to carry." She dug out her little notepad, and scribbled out where they had set down, and the direction they had initially set out on, plus time elapsed.

"I'm so glad you carry that thing everywhere..." Roy said as he dug out a strap to tie the note with. Trouble chirped indignantly, but let the note be tied to a forepaw after Roy glared at him for a moment. "Okay, Trouble. Go home, find Dick. Go _home_." 

Trouble chirred again, leapt off his shoulder, and disappeared.

"If only we had the ability," Dinah said softly.

"Wouldn't that be great?" Roy agreed. "They could just show us where."

Trouble popped into the house, fluttering about worriedly as he moved from room to room. Major gave a sharp cheep at him, making him settle, and that drew Slade's attention to the brown.

"What is it, Trouble?" He moved to take the note.

The brown ducked his head at the bronze, holding his forepaw out to Slade, tail flicking back and forth.

Slade read the terse note, and nodded. "Both of you, go to Dick, make him know we need a sled." He would send them on ahead, while he found rugged wear for them both.

Major and Trouble vanished, only to reappear and light on either side of where Dick was working on an engine, both of them whistling to get his attention.

"What? Trouble? What're you doing back?"

"Meeerp." The long, drawn out sound and dull eyes were enough to tell Dick there was something up. Major chittered at the other bronze, and Dick got fleeting impressions of a sled.

"Did their sled break down? Where's Hope?"

Trouble looked over his shoulder, toward the south.

Major cocked his head at Dick, then glanced at the sleds with a very strident cheep.

"Major? Do we... need to go get them?"

Major gave a sharp bob of his head, then looked back toward their home.

"I take it that means Slade's coming?" He waited a second, shaking his head, and Trouble vanished, coming back with the note, and hovering in front of him. "Okay, okay, I get it." He raised his voice, "Fulmar!"

"Yes, Grayson?"

"Need to take one of the sleds for a few, ought to be back within a couple hours..."

"'S'Alright, kid. Just be careful with her. Not like you ask often, compared to how much you work on them."

Vic came up beside him at the yell, faint noise from the prosthetic of his leg catching his attention. "Everything okay, Dick? Those little guys sound pretty upset..."

Dick shrugged a shoulder slightly, "I dunno. That partner of mine and Dinah must've got themselves lost, we've got to go looking."

"Man. Alright. Stay on a comm with somebody, okay?"

"Don't worry, Vic. We'll be okay." He raised his voice enough to call across the shed, "Thanks, Fulmar."

"Vic... if one of them's gotten hurt -- I don't think they have, Trouble'd be a lot more upset, but--"

"Get going, Dick. I'll make sure your stuff gets done, if you don't make it back."

"Thanks, Vic," he said as he cleaned his hands off to take off at a run back for the house. Slade met him partway there and tossed him a set of clothes in a bag. "I figured they'd forget to tell you to wait with the sled, Kid."

"Yeah, they must have missed that part," he shrugged. "Major kept looking back at the house."

Slade grunted. "They got lost, down in the deep jungle."

"Trouble brought me the note Dinah sent," Dick nodded, jogging back with him, and vanished into the back of the shop to change.

"Funny... give them beasties to help them, and **then** they go and get lost?"

Dick couldn't help but laugh, "Well, when these guys can just jump back and forth, I guess they're not so good at giving directions..."

"I guess not." Slade smiled too. Dick swung up into the sled, glancing at the coordinates on the note again before heading south, Trouble and Chakano on either shoulder. Major rode Slade's shoulder, a little more quiet than the other two males, but quite intent on finding the rest of his fair.

***

Since wandering around thinking they were headed the right way was about the quickest way possible to get more lost than they already were, Roy had settled in against a tree and was methodically checking over his arrows, tightening the fletching on some of them.

Dinah sat nearby, cataloguing the few new herbs she was taking back for testing, her hand steady as she sketched them. Hope had been curled in her lap, but suddenly tipped her head up and whistled, crawling out of her person's lap.

"Danger?" Dinah asked, watching the queen carefully.

"I don't think so..." Roy said, watching her. "Her eyes aren't all red, but I don't hear a sled, either..."

Hope looked outward, feeling the presence of her fair mates growing closer.

Roy shook his head at himself the next minute, "Of course I don't hear a sled, where would they park it, in this kind of cover? They must have set down nearly where we did..."

"Then they've been using Hope as a beacon, and you, for Trouble." Dinah stood up, putting things neatly away.

Roy added his own whistle to Hope's warbling, and listened. He heard Trouble very distinctly, though still muffled by the foliage.

"Let's walk toward them," Dinah said, trusting Hope to find the other three.

It didn't take long for the two parties to meet up, with an insistent gold herding her two along impatiently.

Dinah smiled, dropping her eyes shyly, at Slade and Dick. "We got a little turned around."

"Trouble and Hope helped do it," Roy quickly said, to two indignant cheeps.

"What'd I say about this damn jungle?" Dick scolded his partner even as he pulled him in for a hard hug.

Roy nuzzled into it. "So next time we bring some kind of flags," Roy said, holding tight to his partner.

"I should have been using them all along, but we've always done so well," Dinah said with a soft reproach at herself.

"Yes, you both have. I'd look for where you got off your back-trail, but I'd rather not get all of us lost," Slade said, then shook his head as all four dragonets scolded him. "Apparently they agree."

"I'm with them," Roy agreed quickly. "Besides, can you imagine the amount of trouble we'd get if we all got lost?"

"Vic'd never let me hear the end of it," Dick agreed, shaking his head.

Hope settled back on Dinah's shoulder as they started walking, happy thoughts of having her full fair coming at the woman. Major was utterly smug, flitting between their gold and his person happily. At one point, Slade looked and found Major perched on Dinah's other shoulder, their tails most likely linked behind her neck. The older man was beginning to question the tightness of the four dragonets, especially when he kept seeing Dinah's reserve. Then again, she never seemed to mind the dragonets' tendency to use her as a favored perch, and was just as affectionate with Major as with her own, as far as touching and petting him went. He pushed away the bit of worry, at least for the moment, and just made sure that they got back to the sleds safely.

"Slade... thank you again," Dinah said, once they did reach the sleds.

"Don't worry about it, Dinah."

"Di... you mind riding with Slade? Me and Dick..." Roy looked completely interested in spending more time with his partner, since he'd had to drag him out into the jungle anyway.

"That's fine."

Dick flashed a smile at her, "Thanks, Dinah. See you both back home?"

Slade nodded, "Once you come off the rest of your shift, we'll see you."

"...that's what I _meant_ ," Dick protested innocently, smile on his lips.

Dinah tried not to smile, even as Roy looked a little sheepish. "Tell Mister Stone thank you."

"I will," Dick promised, "Roy, you letting me fly?"

"Yeah, you can." Roy's eyes lit up and they got into the air, while Slade assisted Dinah onto the original sled.

"I can fly it, if you'd like me to... we use the same one nearly every time."

"I don't mind flying, if you'll keep Major," Slade told her.

Dinah nodded, letting Major rub his cheek along hers. "I don't mind. He's good company."

"Thank you. Did you find anything interesting today?"

"New berries, a few other things." She started describing them and her thoughts on them.

In the other sled, Dick was cheerfully pricking at Roy for having gotten himself lost, now that he was sure his partner was safe. Roy shrugged it off onto the dragonets, smiling cheerfully as Trouble tried to deny it. Dick wasn't buying that for a second, but it wasn't worth arguing about either, and he let it go to just reach over and wind his free hand through Roy's, holding on. Roy grinned more, and moved as close as he could get, loving the free time with his lover.

**Author's Note:**

> [The Extended Verse landing page](http://archiveofourown.org/works/987616)


End file.
